Pinson Valley's Nick Gibson outruns Center Point's Donte Blackmon during a game in Center Point on Oct. 4, 2013. Pinson Valley must beat Moody this week to play at home in the first round of the state playoffs. (Dennis Victory/preps@al.com)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- This is the week that page 17 of the Alabama High School Athletic Association's Fall Sports Book is printed out all across the state. That's the statewide bracket that reveals which regions each seed will crossover to play in the first few rounds of the playoffs.

Well, that page and also page 15 that goes over all those tiebreakers for the myriad of Metro teams that always wind up in three-way ties for either one or even two of a region's four playoff seeds.

Here's a few things every program should know in order to navigate that maze: 1) Schedule teams in the same class or above for those non-region games; 2) Beat those teams; 3) See fewer headaches when your team takes a trip to Tiebreaker City every other November or so.

There are several Metro regions that will need this week's action and to count up those games won by defeated opponents in class and above to settle whether or not they'll be practicing during the second week of November.

Who's going to win this week and why? That's what each edition of the Birmingham Metro picks are all about. This week's preview gives you a quick pick on who will win this week's big games and why and sets the table for the upcoming slate of high school football across Birmingham.